1 In 3 Adults In Britain Take A Teddy To Bed

By on August 21, 2010 in News 14
Photo: Waugsberg (GNU)

Photo: Waugsberg (GNU)

Is it just a British thing? From the Telegraph:

More than a third of adults still hug a childhood soft toy while falling asleep, according to a new survey. More than half of Britons still have a teddy bear from childhood and the average teddy bear is 27 years old, the poll found.

Travelodge, the hotel chain, surveyed 6,000 British adults and found that respondents said sleeping with a teddy a “comforting and calming” way to end the day.

The survey also found that 25 per cent of men said they even took their teddy away with them on business because it reminded them of home.

Travelodge said that in the past year staff have reunited more than 75,000 teddies and their owners.

Spokesman Shakila Ahmed said: “Interestingly the owners have not just been children, we have had a large number of frantic businessmen and women call us regarding their forgotten teddy bear.”

Corrine Sweet, a psychologist, said cuddling a teddy bear was an ‘important part of our national psyche’…

[continues in the Telegraph]

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  • Gemmarama

    in defence of my country-folk, surely this bizarre statistic only applies to the kind of bedwetters who voluntarily stay at travelodges..?!

  • GWF Hegel

    I don't believe this. Maybe one-third of travelodge attenders… anyway there is bound to be a severe methodological flaw in this study. I have absolutely never heard of anything like this.

  • Haystack

    I want to know what the other 2 out of 3 go to bed clutching.

    • Gemmarama

      a picture of the queen.

  • Andrew

    The sun now sets on the British Empire.

  • ET

    And how many Americans sleep with their guns?

    • Raveneapoe

      “And how many Americans sleep with their guns?”

      Quite a few I imagine, seeing that confronting a burglar, rapist or killer with a teddy bear would be slightly ineffective.
      Sleep with your teddy, I prefer my .45.

  • Anon

    Oh come off it, it's just a media puff-piece to put Travelodge's name in the papers. Nothing more, nothing less.

  • Blerta

    um this is just strange..

  • Anonymous

    Eh, I'm an adult and I still do that when I'm sleeping alone, although if I don't have my “teddy”, I'll substitute in pillow, cat, dog, blanket, jacket, or whatever's nearby and relatively fluffy.

    Of course, when I'm *not* sleeping alone, there's no need for a teddy bear or anything, cause I have a real person to cuddle with =)

    I think it's less of an “OMG I need my Teddy!” thing than for some people, it's simply most comfortable to sleep that way. I sleep on my side, and like I said before, I'm not pick about what (or whom) I cuddle. I just like my arm to be on top of something and not flat on the bed.

    P.S. I'm American. Don't sleep cuddling my gun, but when I was younger I knew multiple people who'd had drunk guys get lost and crawl into their beds, so when I got a roommate who had NO concept of ever locking our door I started sleeping with a knife tucked between the edge of my bed and the wall.

    • Anonymous

      In the last paragraph, I'm talking about college dorms =( Lots of sketchy stuff going on in there, lol.

  • Small

    Complete bollocks.

  • Arentma

    So it isn’t just Mr. Bean…

  • Arentma

    So it isn't just Mr. Bean…